Kerry Hensley wrote:
As effective laboratories for studying the impact of nature on galaxy evolution without the influence of nurture, galaxies in cosmic voids stand alone. What does the dearth of galactic neighbors mean for the morphology of galaxies in cosmic voids? ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
What can you do with a team of people armed with backyard telescopes and a decade of patience? Test how binary star systems evolve under Einstein’s general theory of relativity! ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
More than forty years after the first discovery of a double neutron star, we still haven’t found many others — but a new survey is working to change that.

In 1974, Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor discovered the first double neutron star: two compact objects locked in a close orbit about each other. Hulse and Taylor’s measurements of this binary’s decaying orbit over subsequent years led to a Nobel prize — and the first clear evidence of gravitational waves carrying energy and angular momentum away from massive binaries. ...

Since the Hulse-Taylor binary, we’ve found a total of 16 additional double neutron-star systems — which represents only a tiny fraction of the more than 2,600 pulsars currently known. Recently, however, a large number of pulsar surveys are turning their eyes toward the sky, with a focus on finding more double neutron stars — and at least one of them has had success.

Conducted with the 1,000-foot Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the Arecibo 327 MHz Drift Pulsar Survey has enabled the recent discovery of dozens of pulsars and transients. Among them, as reported by Jose Martinez (Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy) and coauthors in a recent publication, is PSR J1411+2551: a new double neutron star with one of the lowest masses ever measured for such a system. ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
TRAPPIST-1, a nearby ultracool dwarf star, was catapulted into the public eye roughly a year ago when it was determined to host seven transiting, Earth-sized planets — three of which are located in its habitable zone. But how correct are the properties we’ve measured for this system? ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
The recent discovery of a new type of tiny, star-forming galaxy is the latest in a zoo of detections shedding light on our early universe. What can we learn from the unique “little blue dots” found in archival Hubble data? ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
The compact centers of active galaxies — known as active galactic nuclei, or AGN — are known for the dynamic behavior they exhibit as the supermassive black holes at their centers accrete matter. New observations of outflows from a nearby AGN provide a more detailed look at what happens in these extreme environments. ...

Kerry Hensley wrote:
The boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium (ISM) at the distant edge of our solar system has been probed remotely and directly by spacecraft, but questions about its properties persist. What can models tell us about the structure of this region? ...

Three-dimensional Features of the Outer Heliosphere Due to Coupling between the Interstellar and Heliospheric Magnetic Field.
V. The Bow Wave, Heliospheric Boundary Layer, Instabilities, and Magnetic Reconnection - N. V. Pogorelov et al

Susanna Kohler wrote:
One long-standing astrophysical puzzle is that of so-called “missing” dwarf galaxies: the number of small dwarf galaxies that we observe is far fewer than that predicted by theory. New simulations, however, suggest that perhaps there’s no mystery after all. ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, today we’ll be exploring apparent pairs of galaxies in the distant, early universe. How can we tell whether these duos are actually paired galaxies, as opposed to disguised singles? ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
As part of a major survey of evolved stars, scientists have discovered the most eccentric planet known to orbit a giant. What can we learn from this unusual object before it’s eventually consumed by its host? ...

Kerry Hensley wrote:
For the first time, data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveal the presence of methyl formate and dimethyl ether in a star-forming region outside our galaxy. This discovery has important implications for the formation and survival of complex organic compounds — important for the formation of life — in low-metallicity galaxies both young and old. ...

The Detection of Hot Cores and Complex Organic Molecules in the Large Magellanic Cloud - Marta Sewiło et al

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Got any plans in 46 million years? If not, you should keep an eye out for PSR J1946+2052 around that time — this upcoming merger of two neutron stars promises to be an exciting show! ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
How do you spot very young, newly formed stars? One giveaway is the presence of jets and outflows that interact with the stars’ environments. In a new study, scientists have now discovered an unprecedented number of these outflows in a nearby star-forming region of our galaxy. ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Planet interactions are thought to be common as solar systems are first forming and settling down. A new study suggests that these close encounters could have a significant impact on the moons of giant exoplanets — and they may generate a large population of free-floating exomoons. ...

Kerry Hensley wrote:
Supernova explosions enrich the interstellar medium and can even briefly outshine their host galaxies. However, the mechanism behind these massive explosions still isn’t fully understood. Could probing the asymmetry of supernova remnants help us better understand what drives these explosions? ...

Susanna Kohler wrote:
What happens to a neutron star’s accretion disk when its surface briefly explodes? A new instrument recently deployed at the International Space Station (ISS) is now watching bursts from neutron stars and reporting back. ...

NICER Observes the Effects of an X-Ray Burst on the Accretion Environment in Aql X-1 - L. Keek et al

Kerry Hensley wrote:
In 2012, Voyager 1 zipped across the heliopause. Five and a half years later, Voyager 2 still hasn’t followed its twin into interstellar space. Can models of the heliopause location help determine why? ...